A 1956 Wallace P. Heller photo courtesy of Fred's Erie Railroad History Page.
Wanaque/Midvale Yard became the end of the line after 1939 with service to Ringwood and Sterling Forest (Greenwood Lake) discontinued. This small yard was originally built with a turntable for turning the locomotives (see below). Later a runaround track (wye) was used replacing turntable. The locomotives pictured are ready for the next day's run.

The tracks and water tower (for the earlier steam locomotives) are long gone. The yard itself has become the playground, ball field and parking lot for the Wanaque school. Rusty remnants can still be found among the brush. A panorama of the site is below.

Photo: Paul Bryan Collection

A photo of the "roundhouse" circa 1900. More likely this was simply an engine shed, a type of garage for locomotives. The area was too small for an actual roundhouse and with the wye, it was not needed in order to reverse the locomotives.

The "runaround" track, as pictured on the left side of the Heller photo would have gone through the area where the school now stands. It would have connected with the main track heading north. The track in the right front of the photo would have connected to the main track heading south.

Photo: Unofficial.Net (12/2006)

Photo: Unofficial.Net (12/2006)

The photo at the left shows the location of the roadbed heading south towards the Midvale Station (at Railroad Ave.), Haskell and eventually Jersey City. The bed would have been in the center of the photo, across the baseball field. The Wanaque First Aid Squad building sits in the distance over top of where the track would have been. The photo on the right shows the northern route. The track would have been in the center of the photo where the dumpster is pictured. From there it would have crossed Meadowbrook Rd. and Conklintown Rd. heading towards Ringwood and Greenwood Lake.

As mentioned, the Greenwood Lake Line traveled north beyond Midvale. The Greenwood Lake Branch was a short branch line that ran from Jersey City, NJ to Greenwood Lake. In the area of what is now the intersection of Greenwood Lake Turnpike and Sloatsburg Road in Ringwood, the line split with a branch going into the Ringwood mine area and Peter's Mine. The line was originally built to serve the iron mines in Ringwood and also to transport ice from Greenwood Lake to New York City. After these two businesses shut down the line was cut down to end in Wanaque/Midvale. When the line continued to Greenwood Lake, it also gave easy access to the vacation destination that Greenwood Lake was, with hotels lining the shores. The line ended at Sterling Forest, just over the New Jersey, New York border. There, a number of lake steamers would take you further on to your destination. With the construction of the Wanaque Reservoir, much of the line beyond Midvale had to be realigned. Most of the original roadbed is under water. Remnants of the realigned roadbed is still visible. After the section beyond Midvale closed, the line became primarily a commuter line, although it did have some online industries and was host to an occasional local freight or two.

The Midvale station at the end of Railroad Avenue, Midvale. This image is one of the earlier photos and does not show what was to become Dondero's Hotel. Later photos do include the hotel as seen below.

The photo on the left is from about 1965 and is compared to the current view. The building on the right, which is where the railroad right of way would have been is the Wanaque Golden Age Club. On the left edge of each photo is Dondero's.

Several photos of the locomotives found in Wanaque.

Photo: David Mainey, www.steamlocomotive.com

The lower photo is of Erie locomotive number 3204 as it heads south after having left Midvale and crossing the Wanaque River bridge. This is an ALCO 2-8-2 "Mikado" built around 1918.